← Back to Reviews
in
Mildred Pierce (1945)
Director: Michael Curtiz
Writers: Ranald MacDougall (screenplay), James M. Cain (novel)
Cast: Joan Crawford, Ann Bylth, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott, Eve Arden
Genre: Drama, Film Noir
Mildred Pierce (1945)
Writers: Ranald MacDougall (screenplay), James M. Cain (novel)
Cast: Joan Crawford, Ann Bylth, Jack Carson, Zachary Scott, Eve Arden
Genre: Drama, Film Noir
"A hard-working mother inches towards disaster as she divorces her husband and starts a successful restaurant business to support her spoiled daughter."
Joan Crawford made a huge comeback in 1945's Mildred Pierce. Director Michael Curtiz was reluctant to hire the one huge movie star, who had a reputation for being difficult to work with and in the last few years hadn't been been as popular as she once was. It's a good thing for Miss Crawford that she was given the title role as a working class mom who works herself to the bone, to give her only child, a spoiled daughter all the luxuries she had been denied in her life.
That's Butterfly McQueen to the left, best known for her role in Gone With the Wind.
Eve Arden left, Zachary Scott center and Ann Blyth right.
This might sound like a soapy opera, but thanks to the flashback opening scenes that starts the movie with Joan being taken to police headquarters for a murder she seems to have committed. But did she? That's the mystery, that's the rub and Mildred Pierce has several sub stories running along with the main theme that makes this movie a master piece.
Nominated for 6 Oscars, and winning one, Best Actress for Joan Crawford and one and only time she would win that. Joan gives her all to movie, she pours herself into her role....a role that was not unlike her own life. Ann Blyth plays her spoiled rotten daughter to perfection. She was nominated for best supporting actress.
The script is as fresh as the day it was made, and the story compelling.
That's Butterfly McQueen to the left, best known for her role in Gone With the Wind.
This might sound like a soapy opera, but thanks to the flashback opening scenes that starts the movie with Joan being taken to police headquarters for a murder she seems to have committed. But did she? That's the mystery, that's the rub and Mildred Pierce has several sub stories running along with the main theme that makes this movie a master piece.
Nominated for 6 Oscars, and winning one, Best Actress for Joan Crawford and one and only time she would win that. Joan gives her all to movie, she pours herself into her role....a role that was not unlike her own life. Ann Blyth plays her spoiled rotten daughter to perfection. She was nominated for best supporting actress.
The script is as fresh as the day it was made, and the story compelling.